United States – Ex-U.S. President Donald Trump is keen to postpone his lawyers’ submission in New York hush money criminal case until after the Nov. 5 election, blaming “election-interference aims. ”
Court Dates and Sentencing Schedule
On the other hand, Trump, the candidate of the Republican party, will be in court on Sept. 18 to be sentenced. That is, two days after Justice Juan Merchan is expected to release his decision on his motion to vacate the Manhattan jury’s May 30 conviction due to the U. S. Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity, as reported by Reuters.
In a letter to Merchan dated August 14 and made public on Thursday, Trump’s defense lawyers stated Trump should get more time to possibly appeal Merchan’s immunity decision before a sentence is imposed upon him.
“Setting aside naked election-interference objectives, there is no valid countervailing reason for the Court to keep the current sentencing date on the calendar,” Trump lawyers Todd Blanche and Emil Bove wrote. “There is no basis for continuing to rush.”
A spokesman for the Manhattan District Attorney’s office, who has launched the charges, refused to speak.
The Hush Money Case and Legal Implications
After the first criminal trial of a current or former U. S. president, Trump was charged with violating federal election laws by providing false information to the Federal Election Committee in regard to $130,000 that his then-attorney, Michael Cohen, paid Stormy Daniels.
The payment aimed at making Daniels loyal is not disclosing the story of her alleged affair with Trump that happened a decade ago in the 2016 election campaign season, which Trump denied. Special counsels pointed to the payment as evidence of a larger conspiracy to meddle in the 2016 presidential polls that Trump won against the Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton.
Trump, 78, was initially scheduled to be sentenced on the 11th of July.
Legal Arguments and Presidential Immunity
Merchan put it off after the Supreme Court, in a different criminal case Trump is involved in, ruled that U. S. presidents cannot be criminally prosecuted for official actions and that evidence of presidents’ official conduct cannot assist in proving criminal conduct by presidents for their unofficial actions.
Trump’s lawyers have said that arbitration rulings mean the hush money verdict has to be thrown out. In their minds, the propriety or impropriety of the conduct at issue in this case pertained to personal conduct rather than official acts, as reported by Reuters.
Given that falsifying business records can earn one up to four years in prison, the majority of the defendants convicted of that crime in the past received fines or probation accordingly.